For Comic Readers

[Vega199]

What is your opinion on the DCU reboot?

I actually don't know how to feel about it. I guess as long as the stories are good it doesn't matter but then they're doing stuff like Clark and Lois not being married ignoring years of character development. Your thoughts?

 

[Snail Shell]

Fail.

SS

 

[Vega199]

Yeah that seems to be the general thought but comics do have the problem of having long and complicated continuity and a reboot would solve that.

 

[Korastus]

I'm withholding judgement until I see it. A lot of big names are involved with the reboots. It could go either way.

 

[Soda Bobinski]

Fail.

x 52

 

[DGF1976]

Not a fan. Dumb idea.

 

[General Zod]

It looks like there will be soom cool titles.

I Vampire

Frankenstein,agent of S.H.A.D.E.

Sgt Rock and the men of war-maybe.

Blackhawks

The only way I will read the Superman series is if General Zod is part of the DC Universe.

 

[Ishaanshah]

Not a huge fan..🙂

 

[IrishTickle]

I was a little wary of it at first, but the idea is kind of growing on me. A lot of the stories were getting very stale and this might inject a bit of excitement into them. I guess time will tell how it goes.

 

[Amnesiac]

I don't think it'll help.

The continuity problems exist because DC's universe has been around since the 1930s. In all that time, the comic medium has changed in aesthetics as well as printing and illustration technology, just like music and movies have changed with innovation over time. Added to which, the comics business has gone from under-appreciated novelty to fanatically protected franchise, and the Comstockian Castration that was the Comics Code Authority fucked storytelling coherence and continuity for almost 40 years. AND ideas about reality have changed dramatically from what people thought would be cool and stylish 80 years ago (http://www.cracked.com/article_18591_the-5-most-impractical-aspects-superhero-costumes.html).

80 years of encroaching reality has taken the wingdings out of action fashion.

Not to mention the level of fucked-upitude that occurs in the years between and before radical social and cultural shifts:
http://www.cracked.com/article_16230_the-6-creepiest-comic-book-characters-all-time.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_17626_the-5-creepiest-sex-scenes-in-comics.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_18785_6-comic-book-crossovers-you-wont-believe-actually-happened.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_19105_6-comics-that-covered-serious-issues-failed-hilariously.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_18502_the-5-most-unintentionally-offensive-comic-book-characters.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_1883...-books-have-resurrected-dead-superheroes.html

Seriously, Cracked has a shitton of these.

Rebooting the DC universe basically erases all the history to deal with, but doesn't offload the baggage attached to it. You STILL have a 70+ year-old superhero template and marketing/distribution system in place. Added to which, cultural and political changes will continue to happen and the SAME FUCKING PROBLEMS WILL OCCUR ALL OVER AGAIN.

So what DC is basically saying is "Let's start all over again, but not change anything" which does not help ONE FUCKING BIT. Something this large requires a complete re-evaluation of the medium in it's entirety, which would be like re-inventing an entire industry from scratch. That would cost money, not make it. They did that 80 years ago, and they're not gonna do it again.

The reboot doesn't affect ME because I don't read DC except for Vertigo, which is mostly removed from the DC continuity to begin with, but it does effectively irritate me because it means that the DC people want to fix things without doing anything differently; which means they're completely oblivious as to how things got fucked up in the first place and therefore, they'll do it all over again.